Economic conditions for small business have improved over the past year, though it is hardly golden times, according to a new report from the Reserve Bank. It shows that measures of business conditions and confidence have improved but remain weaker than for large businesses. Meanwhile insolvency rates are still running at near record highs with 1,100 businesses entering insolvency last month alone. The construction sector leads the way, though numbers are stabilising. Where insolvencies are rising is in transport, according to CreditorWatch.

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News in brief

Environment Minister Murray Watt is open to watering down a contentious new power to pre-emptively reject developments, in return for Coalition support for a major overhaul of federal environment laws. Watt is also prepared to reach a deal with the Greens, who want stronger protections for native forests.

Australian superannuation account balances have reached a record high of almost $173,000 on average, with those aged between 65 and 69 years of age, holding more than $420,000. There is still a gender gap – among the 18m account holders in Australia, males average $192,000 and females $155,000, according to the super sector’s peak body, ASFA.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is heading to an APEC meeting later in the week, but before then, he has headed to Kuala Lumpur for the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.

Qantas has upgraded its inflight menu, making it more Australian, adding pies and toasties as well as garlic prawns and jam drops. There are more than 70 new options including an egg and chorizo toastie with tomato chutney; a beef sausage burrito wrap; a jam drop cookie and macadamia butterscotch cake. 

Two suspects have been arrested over the theft of precious crown jewels from the Louvre Museum, according to French media, with one taken into custody as he was preparing to take a flight from Paris.

Fear-o-meter

More than 30 years after Australia introduced compulsory superannuation, with an initial contribution rate of three per cent that has grown to 12 per cent, the economy is reaping the rewards. 

Back in the early 1990s the World Bank endorsed Australia’s three pillars system – compulsory superannuation, the age pension and voluntary retirement savings – as world leading.

In 1996, super assets reached $245.3 billion. Today the sector is worth $4.3 trillion and doing much of the heavy lifting ensuring older Australians have money in retirement.

There are still problems with the system. Males have more in super than females. Not all super funds perform as well as others. Governments pressure funds around investing in the national interest. But overall, as the ASFA figures released last week show, the super sector in Australia is doing a great job.

Super, not the age pension, is the primary source of retirement income. A 30-year-old on a median income, assuming they work until retirement, will have enough money to fund their older years. Australia’s super system remains world-leading.

Fear & Greed Q+A today

On the week ahead for the economy, including the all-important September quarter inflation figures, which will impact whether we see a rate cut when the RBA meets next week:

 

"I think if you got a CPI, a quarterly trimmed mean of 0.6% or less, I think that would be a much easier decision for the Reserve Bank. And it was coming in line with forecasts. They can be a bit more comfortable around cutting rates in November. And then if it was a quarterly number of 1% or above, then there would be a clear signal not to cut interest rates. That would be a very big miss from a forecasting point of view. 

Any quarterly trim mean between 0.7 and 0.9, I think you're in a bit of a grey zone. You can probably still debate that ad nauseam as to what the central bank should do."

Greed-o-meter

It's a massive week on Wall Street, with five of the Magnificent Seven stocks reporting results in just two days. Here are the ten biggest companies in the US by market cap - chipmaker NVIDIA is still well in front.

Source: TradingView

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